Direct Memory Access (DMA) is well known in the software and hardware design of processor based systems. DMA transfer is often used to provide automated data transfer between memory locations absent direct involvement of a processor or processor based commands for performing each memory access operation. Typically, a processor command is used to instruct the DMA circuit and to initiate same. Thus with a single command or few commands a DMA allows for low processor overhead transfer of large amounts of data from one storage location to another—for example from a storage location to a cache memory.
Typical DMA circuits receive a data source location, a data destination location, and a length and then transfer length bytes of data from the source location to the destination location. The use of DMAs has become quite prolific, as have the complexity and functionalities thereof. For example, it is known to have a DMA that transfers data according to a table of data source locations, data destination locations and lengths.
It would be advantageous to provide an architecture for efficient DMA utilisation.